Metabolism is arguably one of the most misunderstood concepts amongst the general public. How often do you hear people saying things like 'she must have a high metabolism - that's why she can eat anything and still be so skinny.' Although this is not entirely wrong, it is important to understand what metabolism is and how it supports your body and how it works for you. Metabolism is nothing but the natural process through which your body transforms food into energy. Food needs to be broken down for your body to be able to use it as energy. Speeding up your metabolism will obviously speed up the process at which your body converts food and stored fat into energy and consequently you 'loose weight'.

The common misconception that so many people hold is that they are 'born' with either a high or a low metabolism. Your genetic make up accounts for only 5% of your metabolic rate. The rest of your metabolism is determined by none other than you. There are only two factors that can account for your metabolism. Speeding up metabolism needs to focus only on these two areas. Although certain hereditary factors can play a role we will discard them for the sake of our discussion (it affects only a very small percentage of people anyway.)

1. What You Eat:
Loosing weight is not rocket science. We all to often blame things that are outside of us for our weight problems, but the fact remains that it is all just YOU. To loose weight there are only two things that can possibly play a role. What you eat and how you exercise your body. Speeding up metabolism starts with your eating patterns.

Many people deprive themselves of food in a vain attempt to loose weight. This actually slows down your metabolism and consequently it slows down the tempo at which your body burns calories. The key is to eat more, but less. Metabolism is a bit like getting a big heavy stream train to move - getting it moving is the hard part and once it's got momentum it is much easier to keep it moving. By having three to five smaller meals throughout the day you will keep your metabolism high.

Binge eating and depriving yourself of food are the two big no-no's if you are trying to speed up metabolism for weight loss. It is important then to eat high energy foods to keep up your metabolism. Fresh fruit and vegetables are packed with energy and will go a long way in speeding up your metabolism. Eating more does not mean eating and snacking on junk food. You need to eat more quality food.

2. Exercise
This is where most people 'bomb-out', but before you do, consider this. Your body was designed to move and to be active. Like anything in nature, if it's not used, it starts to deteriorate and being overweight is a nothing but a sign of deterioration. The reason why you always feel good after exercise is because the body releases hormones that only get released during exercise.

Your metabolism and the rate at which your body converts calories into energy is directly related to your body's demand for energy. If your body does not require energy, the food will simply get stored as fat. When you increase the demand for energy you body will respond accordingly and increase your metabolism to meet this demand. Exercise is probably the easiest way to increase the demand and speed up your metabolism.

Speeding up metabolism by applying these two principles are often easier said than done. The cold hard truth however, is that this is all there is to it. To speed up your metabolism, either increase the demand through exercise or decrease the supply through what you eat.